Constitutional Law

Calif. AG Urges State Supreme Court To Hear Challenges To Prop. 8

California Attorney General Jerry Brown urged the state supreme court to hear legal challenges to Proposition 8, the ballot measure that stripped gays of marriage rights. “The profound importance of the issue raised by Proposition 8 warrants that this matter be reviewed and promptly resolved by the California Supreme Court,” Brown said in a press statement. Gay couples represented by the ACLU, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) lodged a legal action with the California Supreme Court after Election Day arguing that Proposition 8 subverts the state constitution. In a press release announcing the legal action, NCLR described the anti-gay marriage ballot measure as “invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group – lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities.”

The Mormon church and socially conservative political lobbying outfits, such as James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, have dumped large sums of money and other resources into promoting Proposition 8. Dobson’s group funneled more than $500,000 into the push for Prop. 8. Late yesterday, officials with Dobson’s Colorado Springs-based religious ministry announced that it was cutting 202 jobs, a 20 percent deduction in its workforce, reported The Colorado Independent. Officials with Dobson’s group argued that its financial support of Proposition 8 did not spur the group’s new layoffs.

Over the weekend tens of thousands of rallies were conducted nationwide in support of same-sex marriage.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on November 18, 2008 (boomark / email).